+Justice said:TRUE LIBERTY said:+Justice said:also, the right to vote is not a privilege, it's a constitutional right just like the right to bear arms, freedom of speech, the right to assembly and the freedom of religion... going to jail is not proof that one lacks the ability to vote...
sourceThe choice of the word "servitude" interacts intriguingly with the text of the Thirteenth Amendment. That is, "slavery" is prohibited, as is "involuntary servitude except as a punishment for crime." This language certainly foresaw that in the future, convicts might be put to hard labor, as indeed they were. (One recent book remembered the conditions in the 20th-century Parchman Farm prison in Mississippi as "worse than slavery.") But that kind of "servitude" is not mentioned in the Fifteenth Amendment; the omission suggests that conviction of crime in and of itself would not be an acceptable reason for restricting "the right to vote." Even convicted criminals must be afforded the right in its fullest extent.
In this reading, only felons actively serving prison terms could be barred from voting--their "condition of servitude" would be present, not "previous." The laborious process of civil-rights restoration imposed by many states (in 2010, one southern governor briefly proposed a requirement that every free felon write him a personal letter outlining his or her contributions to society) seems contrary not only to the spirit but also to the letter of the Fifteenth Amendment.
One can understand questions about felons on juries. But "the right of citizens of the United States to vote" is more strongly protected in the text than jury service. It is the only right in the Constitution to be protected in terms of "previous condition of servitude." These words demand that we give them a meaning commensurate with their extent.
Voting: Right or Privilege?
The Constitution mentions "the right to vote" five times. Judges, and voter ID law proponents, don't seem to be getting the hint
Like anything you loose that constitutional right if you break laws. You do not ever get back your 2nd amendment right in many cases if you go to jail committing certain crimes. Where are all the leftists screaming they did there time give that ex bank robber his gun back! I think Hypocrites would be a word to describe that.
see, there you go again, cherry-picking about the right to bear arms when that's not what we are discussing... i mentioned the right to bear arms only once because i was clearly naming some of the rights that all americans have under the constitution because the OP said that voting is a privilege, which is not correct... we are talking about the right to vote, and voting is not dangerous, voting is good not bad... stop trying to change the subject...
and on another note, give me proof that anyone, let alone a "leftist" is demanding to give guns to an ex bank robber? i think you're just making stuff up out of your ass to try to demonize democrats/liberals in a distasteful way... now, i can understand not giving bank robbers their guns back, but denying people their right to vote after they did their time is simply wrong... after-all, when people get out of jail/prison, do they need to get a job and do other things that everyone does? so, if you don't want to give people the benefit of the doubt, then i guess deny all criminals of a job so they can't feed themselves, right? that's what your logic is, right? and like i said, everyone makes bad choices and breaks the law, it's a matter of getting caught or not... just because people don't go to jail doesn't mean they never break the law or better at making choices than people that do get caught...
anyways, you're the type of person that screams out fraud when indeed you're in the business of fraud, i.e. strongly against marriage when you're in one... very logical...![]()
So then you are saying someone who is convicted of of armed robbery goes to jail and completes there sentence should get there guns back. Hope it is yes because that H word will need to be used again. How above a child molester working in daycare after there jail sentence. Maybe a drunk driver who ran over people who did there jail sentence should drive again?